Gas Guzzlers Are Super Cheap These Days

If you’re one of those guys who is sick of hearing about ‘going green‘ and ‘humans destroying the planet‘, this may be the perfect time for you to buy a brand new car!

The automobile buying trend is clearly heading towards greener, more fuel-efficient vehicles. But for those stuck in the past who want a big truck, you can buy one for real cheap now!

Consumer Reports has been tracking the sales of cars at various dealerships all over the country during the month of August. Now is the best time to jump on all these exorbitant ‘dealer incentives’.

The column on the left of the chart shows what the current average incentive value is for a range of vehicles. The column to the right demonstrates how much lower the usual average incentive was prior to this massive sell off.

With large SUV and truck sales hurting, it’s no surprise that Hummer has the highest average combined customer and dealer incentives per model at $5,400, followed by Lincoln at $4,500, and Land Rover and Mercedes-Benz at $4,100. As expected, incentive availability and scale vary by category, with premium and gas-guzzling models having the grandest offers in general.

The size of the incentives often varies in direct proportion to the size of the vehicle. The big money is with SUVs and pickup trucks, and, to a lesser degree, minivans. Fuel-efficient and affordable small cars are attracting more buyers with fewer and lower incentives.

I suppose the real question in all of this is, “If you can ignore the adverse effects of these vehicles on the planet, could you end up saving money by purchasing a car for so cheap it doesn’t matter if gas is expensive?”

The answer to that question may soon become a yes. As automakers are swearing off SUVs and trucks, these bottom of the barrel sales could be the last of their kind. Meanwhile, gas prices appear to be stabilizing and normalizing at a non-$4/gallon rate (if you’re a fan of ignoring hurricane warnings, too)

Then again, this could all be some big ploy to sell off these gas guzzling money suckers on unsuspecting fools looking for a deal. It is something to think about if you are car shopping now, though.